Word Balloon: The Bendis Tapes, Part 1

New Avengers #50
With the Dark Reign story arc kicking off, it's a new year and fans are
seeing a new direction for the Avengers titles and the entire Marvel
Universe. On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, we sit down with
Dark Reign's creator Brian Michael Bendis for another edition of the
Bendis Tapes, as he takes fan questions posted at Brian's Jinxworld.com
message board.

Some of the highlights in the podcast include Bendis's answers to these subjects...

On Secret Invasion's twist conclusion, and transitions to
Dark Reign... How do you explain the Government's acceptance to Norman
Osborn, former super villain, being made head of the top law
enforcement agency?

"I promise you, all of that will be addressed in my Avengers books.I
would think that would be one of the key questions to be explored, as
the new story unfolds."

What can you say about the Evil Illuminati's future plans ?

"The Dark Reign Cabal as a group, will be showing up in pieces or a
whole. mostly as a whole in my Avengers books and others, but you're
not going to see Osborne be to be villain of the week in every book for
the next year. There are so many different Cabal team-ups and and there
will be a focus on all of these characters. For example, you'll see
plenty of the Doctor Doom and Namor duo in Dark Avengers leading to a
bigger story...NOT AN EVENT! How about an Annual? That's all I'm
saying."

Is there anything you would have changed in the execution of Secret Invasion?

"I would specifically asked for no Howard The Duck.

Howard the Duck has now appeared in six of my comics. I've never
written the words Howard The Duck, but Leniel Yu keeps drawing him in
there. Anytime I write 'there's a big crowd of heroes' in a script, he
thinks that means the duck goes into the front lines."

New Avengers #50 will feature an artist jam in a grandiose fight
which will feature a different artist drawing the fight from a specific
hero point of view. David Aja will draw the Iron Fist page, Steve
McNiven will draw the Spider-Man page.

New Avengers #51
What's the status of the Torso film , and Fortune And Glory 2?

"A few weeks ago I had a Torso Hollywood meltdown, so off putting that I knew I had enough material to complete Fortune And Glory 2. As of this recording, Torso is not green-lit.

"It's not a boo-hoo me moment, never feel bad for a guy with a movie deal."

Weeks before the December 15th Torso option deadline ended. Word in the
press from Paramount was, it's only a formality, and they would close
the deal shortly.

Bendis says "...Within a 24 hour period, we were getting calls first
saying, 'Yes the movie is going forward... to no wait, not yet.'
Anything can happen at this point. It's OK not to win the lottery, just
don't tell me I did."

A Powers Vol 3 status update...

"Issue one is done, we're working on issue #2. We don't want anymore
production delays like in the past, so we won't solicit the start,
until we get four more in the can."

What is Bendis currently writing?

"I'm working on a New Avengers arc, at which the end of it,there will be a new sorcerer supreme. I'm finishing My first Spider-Woman, Agent Of Sword arc, I'm near the end of the first Dark Avengers arc, and I'm well past Ultimatum, in Ultimate Spider-Man."

Also with a special cameo appearance, David Mack joins us to discuss
his work on a Philip K Dick comic adaptation, the next steps for
Kabuki, and behind the scenes details of his co-writing project with
Bendis, Daredevil:The End.

Click here to download the episode, of click Play below to listen to it now.